The Reading Room

Writing.

Essays, articles, and short notes on intelligence, power, and the human work that remains.

Time to read

The collection

10 pieces / Preview edition

Note
3 min · Brief

Bind yourself before ambition speaks

Give a considered decision a way to survive the moment when success makes you impatient.

Practice · Machine Mythology / Open to all

Read the piece Note
4 min · Brief

Keep an exit you can use

A choice remains meaningful only while someone can carry it out. Rehearse one essential function beyond its usual system.

Practice · Machine Mythology / Open to all

Read the piece Note
4 min · Brief

Protect the unfinished thinker

A manager needs to preserve the work through which a capable colleague is still becoming one.

Practice · Machine Mythology / Open to all

Read the piece Note
4 min · Brief

The voice you should not automate

When your words create an obligation, people need a way to reach the person who means them.

Practice · Machine Mythology / Open to all

Read the piece Note
4 min · Brief

Whose future is inside your forecast

A prediction can inherit your ambition without examining it. Make the future you want visible beside the future you expect.

Practice · Machine Mythology / Open to all

Read the piece Essay
10 min · Developed

Where Does Moral Authority Belong in AI Development?

The AI labs promise intelligence beyond our own. Their struggle to govern themselves offers a warning to everyone buying what they build.

Machine Mythology · Faith / Open to all

Read the piece Letter
4 min · Brief

Croesus and the confident machine

The oracle gave the king a true answer. He made the mistake.

Machine Mythology · Practice / Open to all

Read the piece Reading guide
4 min · Developed

The first warning was a letter to the editor

Samuel Butler’s “Darwin Among the Machines,” read as a field manual for keeping an apprenticeship alive.

Machine Mythology · Practice / Open to all

Read the piece Fiction
3 min · Brief

The last signature

Chicago, 2036. The agents have finished the acquisition. All that remains is her signature.

Machine Mythology / Open to all

Read the piece Essay
22 min · In depth

Faith at the Frontier

A values-based manifesto for building technology in the AI era.

Faith · Machine Mythology / Some context helpful